AT LEAST 1,000 workers will be employed when the Ayala Malls Central Bloc will open its doors to the public before the end of this year.

On Monday, Oct. 7, 2019, the mall mounted a career fair joined by 57 mall tenants at the Activity Center of the Ayala Center Cebu. The job fair ends on Tuesday, Oct. 8.

Ayala Malls Central Bloc is the fifth regional mall in the Visayas and Mindanao. The five-level retail shopping mall is located at the Cebu IT Park.

Twenty-two job vacancies are up for grabs for Ayala Malls alone, mostly for administrative and operations work. Store locators looking for employees are Metro Supermarket, Leylam Shawarma, Rose Pharmacy, Ayer’s Lechon, Ding How, Bench and Aerophone, among others.

Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella urged merchants to prioritize hiring Cebuanos. He is confident more applicants from Cebu and neighboring islands can land jobs here on the back of Cebu’s progressive stature.

Bong Dy, general manager of Ayala Center Cebu, said they expect at least 100 merchants to open simultaneously with the mall.

Ayala Malls Central Bloc will house over 270 outlets composed of retail shops, dining outlets and an extensive IT zone for families, young professionals and millennials to enjoy.

“There are a lot of things to expect in our new mall. We have a lot of specialty stores opening,” said Clavel Tongco, Ayala Malls Vismin (Visayas Mindanao) head. She said they are just waiting for mall tenants to finish their store construction works.

Ayala Malls Central Bloc features four cinemas, a chapel and a fashion walk. It also has an area that incubates startup businesses. Considering the mall’s location inside Cebu’s busy business district, it will be open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

In earlier interviews, Cebu Holdings Inc. (CHI) president Aniceto Bisnar Jr. said they were scheduled to open the mall and the first of two office towers of Central Bloc by the fourth quarter of 2019 while another 214-room Seda Hotel would open in early 2020.

The Central Bloc development will have 45,000 square meters (sq.m.) of retail gross leasable area (GLA) and an office GLA of 72,000 sq.m. CHI is an Ayala-led company that manages the Cebu Park District, which covers the Cebu Business Park and Cebu IT Park. (KOC)